PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET specifies the target aggregate PGA memory available to all server processes attached to the instance.

Setting PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET to a nonzero value has the effect of automatically setting the WORKAREA_SIZE_POLICY parameter to AUTO. This means that SQL working areas used by memory-intensive SQL operators (such as sort, group-by, hash-join, bitmap merge, and bitmap create) will be automatically sized. A nonzero value for this parameter is the default since, unless you specify otherwise, Oracle sets it to 20% of the SGA or 10 MB, whichever is greater.

Setting PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET to 0 automatically sets the WORKAREA_SIZE_POLICY parameter to MANUAL. This means that SQL workareas are sized using the *_AREA_SIZE parameters.

Oracle attempts to keep the amount of private memory below the target specified by this parameter by adapting the size of the work areas to private memory. When increasing the value of this parameter, you indirectly increase the memory allotted to work areas. Consequently, more memory-intensive operations are able to run fully in memory and less will work their way over to disk.

If Automatic Memory Management is enabled (MEMORY_TARGET is set to a positive value) and PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET is also set to a positive value, the PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET value acts as the minimum value for the size of the instance PGA.